No. 253 Squadron — Hyderabad State

No. 253 (Hyderabad State) Squadron was reformed on 30 October 1939 at RAF Manston within No. 11 Group, Fighter Command, initially intended as a shipping-protection unit equipped with Blenheims; when no aircraft arrived, the squadron re-roled as a fighter unit and began receiving Hawker Hurricanes in early 1940. One flight was committed to France in May 1940 and suffered heavily during the German advance, while the other flight operated from French bases by day before the collapse. After rebuilding, the squadron flew Hurricanes from RAF Kenley during the Battle of Britain from late August 1940, defending the Croydon and Kenley sector against concentrated Luftwaffe attacks throughout September. The squadron’s Hyderabad State designation, formally conferred in November 1940, honoured a financial gift to the British war effort from the Nizam of Hyderabad, one of twenty-two Indian princely-state gift squadrons; its badge depicts a Mogul-armoured arm bearing an Indian battle-axe, a design suggested by the Nizam himself. In 1941 the squadron moved north to the Orkneys for island air defence before returning south to fly convoy patrols off the East Coast, and in October 1942 it departed for North Africa, arriving at Maison Blanche, Algeria, on 13 November to provide air cover for the First Army during the remainder of the North African campaign. Converting from Hurricanes to Spitfires, the squadron subsequently flew anti-shipping and escort missions from Corsica and Italy before ending the war operating from Yugoslavia, finally disbanding at RAF Treviso, Italy, on 16 May 1947.